A ribbon-cutting, tours and a very special toast ushered in a new era for Pasadena Water and Power Oct. 20 when the groundwater treatment plant at Monk Hill was celebrated with a grand opening. The project is cleaning perchlorate and other compounds from four City of Pasadena water wells near JPL that were contaminated by volatile compounds from rocket fuel that was was dumped into pits after World War II and leached into the ground over the years.
Left to right in the photo above are California Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, PWP Principal Water Engineer Gary Takara, PWP Water Engineering Manager Brad Boman, Mayor Bill Bogaard, NASA Facilities and Environmental Manager Steve Slaten, EPA Superfund Director Jane Diamond, NASA Strategic Infrastructure Manager Olga Dominguez and PWP General Manager Phyllis Currie.
It was the culmination of more than 10 years of partnership among the City of Pasadena, NASA, EPA and other agencies to bring the project to fruition.
The event included tours of the treatment plant as well as the adjacent Windsor Reservoir (that's Brad Boman in the photo below leading a tour inside the reservoir).
Here are more photos from the celebration:
Many thanks to Eric Reed for the photos.
2 comments:
I think this is wonderful. I'm so proud of my city and of JPL for doing this.
I would like to know, though: after the millions NASA spent to clean up the groundwater in the Hahamongna basin, are we justified in building an athletic field there? My question is an honest one, not mean to be antagonistic. Perhaps you can get the answers, Ann. I haven't been able to get them elsewhere.
It's clear an athletic field can't be built there without chemicals to hold the silt in place, kill the gophers, snakes and rabbits in the immediate area, keep the coyotes away, etc. Those chemicals can't be kept out of the ground water.
How do we justify re-polluting the groundwater in the watershed after NASA has spent so much time and money to clean it?
I will miss your blog about Pasadena city's achievements.
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